Stress Relief
by Cheerful Regression
Summary: When one leads such a stressful life, what should be done to relieve the tension? Casual love? Is there such a thing? SasuNaruSasu. Rating for language and non-graphic smexiness.


I know that I just updated _Happy Family_, but I was going through my documents and thought, "Hey, why don't I edit this and turn it into a one-shot?"

So I did.

The pairing is painfully obvious, so if you don't like it and bother to read it _anyway_ then you are an idiot of the highest rank and I pity you deeply.

Disclaimer: If there was some way to make money off of this, it would _rock_. But I don't have a clue as to how that could even be possible. (Translation: I own nothing. At all.)

Warnings of fluff!

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Quote:

"I never stand in the way of that which is inevitable."

-xxxHolic

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It was something that was very informal between them. Kakashi knew about it and therefore so did Iruka.

"I really don't think that you are old enough to be doing this yet," Iruka said to Naruto.

Naruto looked up startled and then glared at Kakashi with a dirty look before blushing and going back to his ramen with renewed vigor. "It's fine."

"You're only fifteen. And he's older than you."

"It's none of your business."

"There are better ways to _relieve stress_," Iruka said, the tone in his words vaguely emulating the intonation of how Kakashi had mentioned it to him.

"It's just about the same as fighting. I fight with Sasuke all the time. I can…mess around with him too."

It worked out perfectly in Naruto's mind. They'd started out in a sudden spark. They'd finished a particularly harsh training session, trying to fight until they were too tired to continue, but Sasuke got a hit ahead of Naruto and it was almost impossible for him to recoup.

It was in no way satisfying to just suddenly be finished with Naruto and Sasuke had ground his teeth in frustration as he continued to egg Naruto on. Naruto was equally frustrated with how unable he was to beat Sasuke the way Sasuke _needed_ to be beaten.

They'd gotten into a ridiculous shouting match and then _somehow_ Sasuke was hooked to Naruto's mouth. When Naruto attempted to pull away to shout again it turned into another aggressive challenge and moved steadily forward until there was an incredible crest in the rise of energy and they were both suddenly breathless.

It wasn't full-out sex in the beginning. In the very beginning it had been simply been the rhythmic contact of their bodies against each other. After that it moved quickly into hand-jobs. Blow jobs took longer to get around to, though the progression from that to sex was very quick.

There had been a dispute in the obvious hierarchy of blow-jobs, which is why it had taken such work to get there, but somehow it had never occurred to them that there was a form of dominance in sex. Whether on the top or the bottom, they were both getting pleasure, and the one on top typically had to do more work. The person who was getting it was actually being rather spoiled by the other.

The occurrence times increased _quickly_. Startlingly quickly.

By the time that they had even gotten around to sex, which was over the course of about three months, they were meeting just about every other day.

Since their introduction to the understanding did not come out of love or the idea of emulating a relationship, they would always meet during the day, usually after an intense training session. Often times it would be at Naruto's house, just because he liked it better than Sasuke's creepy, stuffy, obnoxious complex. They would spend a hot, frantic half hour, then typically part within the next hour.

They were still silly enough to not even really understand why they'd get so sleepy afterwards, but there had been a few times when Sasuke had simply fallen asleep in Naruto's bed. He'd usually be woken up by Naruto's angry shove and mutterings about how Sasuke was a, "Stupid bastard, always knocking me out of the bed."

"Your bed is too small," Sasuke complained irritably. Both of them were cranky when woken up. "This would be easier at my home."

"Then go home to sleep!" Naruto exclaimed, "You always kick me and steal the blankets! Mean, selfish bastard!"

Sasuke always hated that part, because then he had to gather his clothes while Naruto was still there fuming. He'd tried to get Naruto angry enough to leave the room before, but the blond was unwilling to take the bait while still naked. So Sasuke would always have to take on the attitude of being completely _fine_ with being naked and reaching around in the dark for scattered clothing while his lover…his human stress reliever, glared at him from the bed. And Sasuke was pretty certain that Naruto had great night vision.

It would have been enough to make him end these little sessions if not for how much he liked them.

Sakura caught on to what was going on when, after noticing the two leaving together on multiple occasions, she discovered that they were going to Naruto's house. She hadn't thought much of it first, they were probably just doing further training, or something else boring. But then she'd doubted herself and decided to check it out, just in case it was something fun. Maybe they'd include her and she'd be able to get closer to them both.

So after seeing them leave together on a Tuesday afternoon, she'd headed home to shower and change out of her sweaty clothing (missions were a _bitch_ sometimes), and then she headed over to Naruto's. There was no response to the first few knocks. Then she was able to hear movement followed by roughened voices snapping quietly at each other.

Sixteen progressively louder footsteps before the door was yanked open and Naruto was standing in front of her, wearing only boxers and a t-shirt, his hair _shockingly_ messy, and three…_hickeys?!_ Two on his neck and one on his jaw.

"H-hi," she stuttered, immediately glancing behind him and then back to Naruto's chest.

Naruto's cranky features relaxed into a happy smile. "Sakura!" he said in a rougher than normal voice, "Hello."

Then there was a small silence.

Sakura cleared her throat. "I'm sorry for bothering you. I just…thought that I saw you and Sasuke leaving together and I thought that maybe we could all…do something together."

"Really?" Naruto said, his eyes widening. "You mean hang out together?"

His smile grew continuously. Sakura nodded dumbly. Naruto glanced behind him and then bit his lip. "It's okay," Sakura said, "We can hang out a different time, if you've got someone here…"

She blushed. Naruto turned slightly and his eyes flicked back and then to Sakura again. He blushed as well. "I, um…" he said.

He suddenly looked really disappointed. "I _really_ want to hang out with you though. Maybe…Maybe we could have a date sometime, Sakura?"

Sakura's forehead wrinkled in confusion and she actively leaned past him to look back at the bedroom. Naruto followed her gaze and he seemed suddenly frustrated. "No, don't worry about that. It's just…stress relief."

"Stress relief?" she repeated in disbelief, "That's not what I'd call stress relief."

Naruto sighed as Sakura started going into her _must-teach-Naruto-not-to-be-dumb_ mode. "Please Sakura-"

"Don't you 'please Sakura' me," she said in a quiet hiss, "You shouldn't be using someone like that! Th-that's meant for love and commitment!"

"Believe me, I'd rather you-"

"How dare you say that when there's someone in your bed!"

"Oh, come on, it's just a stupid bastard, it's not like he cares!"

Sakura froze. Completely. There was a good minute. Then Naruto froze as well. "Oh shit!" was all he managed before Sakura pushed past him and without even taking off her shoes ran to the dark, but open bedroom door. Then she'd screamed.

She spent the next week refusing to look at Sasuke and glaring angrily at Naruto. Kakashi found the entire thing to be hilarious and after awhile Sakura settled down was actually friendlier than she had been before. Although Sasuke was still pretty bitter about being woken up twice, once by Naruto moving, and once by Sakura screaming. And he was still _very_ bitter that people knew his business.

So everyone, including Naruto, was treated to Sasuke's cold shoulder for awhile.

Excluding the times when he'd head over to Naruto's apartment for a bit of heat.

Because it really was great stress relief. And it was quickly becoming an everyday sort of habit as well. After turning sixteen they both managed to be quiet enough to be able to do it during missions, even if it meant trading breath silently in the tent or shoving up behind a tree if need be. Kakashi was able to appreciate their constantly growing skill at secrecy and cloaking. Sakura didn't notice.

When they were seventeen Naruto finally gave in to Sasuke's constant bitching a bought a bigger bed (though he demanded that that 'whiney, spoiled jerk' pay for half of it), which made it much easier for Sasuke to sleep over.

Some rituals are important to keep, however, so they would still wake up cranky and get into fights. Naruto had even kicked Sasuke out once before he'd finished dressing, so he'd had to slink through the streets of Konoha with no shirt and several love bites. He didn't have his wallet, but one of the stores let him buy a shirt on credit.

Kiba thought it was frickin' hilarious and routinely brought up the incident for the following two years.

After those two years were over, most of Sasuke's daily things were at Naruto's house and when people were looking for him, that's where they would start their search. Sasuke's favorite foods were in the refrigerator and cupboards, and his dirty clothes were mixed with Naruto's in the clothes hamper. There were a few of Sasuke's books and his reading glasses on the bedside table to offset a book of Naruto's on kinky sex positions that was stuffed under his pillow. Sasuke's childhood stuffed rabbit was hidden under one of his quilts in the closet.

They'd decided that sex was great stress relief, that sleeping together was convenient for Sasuke to get to training (despite the fact that they were both did only missions which typically met at the gate), and that spending time together was inevitable.

The fact that Sasuke knew how to make thirteen different kinds of ramen (from scratch), and the fact that Naruto had _not_ laughed when Sasuke blushed terribly as he hid the adorable Mr. Fluff in the closet, was not something that either had bothered to work into their understanding of their lives.

Holding hands while watching movies or entwining their arms and legs as they lay in bed were things that they also chose to ignore. That they would sometimes simply kiss each other while relaxing and not end it with sex, was something else that they never mentioned.

Comforting each other in dark moments or caring for each other after missions and nightmares was just a sign of their friendship.

And they could both (though grudgingly on Sasuke's part) admit that they were friends.

Because words whispered in the dark, at night in bed, didn't count.

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I like the parts that I didn't have to edit best, but I figured that the world could use a bit more fluff, so why not.

I hope you enjoyed it!

If you love me then you should prove it to me..._physically_. Push the button.

-Cheerful Regression

©ReAnimated Productions


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